Monday, 18 November 2013

This
a cracking read and a wonderfully full and complex story woven about Jun Do,
the main character, and his life in North Korea. It is a story about sacrifice, but it is a
wonderful tale. The environments and the
lives may be bleak, in this totalitarian state, but they are human and
carefully brought to life. Starting as
an orphan, he knows he is treated badly by the orphan master, but only because
he is special. He is clever, so he is trained
in the army, and goes to work in the tunnels under the DMZ into South
Korea. He becomes at home and can fight
in the dark. Described only in snippets
through the story, he undergoes pain training and learns to take terrible
punishments. He is bright and is
selected to join a team of kidnappers, pinching people from Japan and South
Korea, often for people with specific talents needed by the Pyonyang elite. He learns foreign languages, especially Japanese
and English. Thus, he is sent to sea on
a fishing trawler, where he listens to the radio traffic at night – including
two American women rowing across the Pacific – and what turns out to be the International
Space Station, where surprisingly Americans and Russians work and joke
together. How could that be possible? Shortly after a run in with the US Navy, he
fakes a terrible shark bite on his arm, to protect the trawler crew from
summary posting to mining camps. His
language skills get him on a trip to Texas, where the “Minister” is a driver, the
minder is the Minister and Jun Do as translator is mistaken by the US security
as General Ga, the highest general in North Korea. Treating his shark wounds, he is
befriended. Back home, Jun Do is sent to
a prison mining camp, where it turns out the real General Ga is in charge of
finding uranium for the state. The
characters Jun Do meets and the trying circumstances are very real. When General Ga, a sadist, comes to visit, he
sets about Jun Do underground. However,
Jun Do breaks the light, darkness is his friend and he gets rid of Ga and takes
his place. He escapes to Puyonyang and
is slowly accepted by Ga’s wife Sun Moon and their two children. Against a backdrop of bizarre brainwashing
behaviour and grand designs to impress foreigners, escape to the US, torture
and sacrifice complete this wonderful book - but for whom, you ask? You will have to read it to find out.

With Do-Soon Kim on the east side of S Korea, after visiting Jeju Island (2008)

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About Me

Professionally, I am Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Weed Research and run my own consultancy Marshall Agroecology Ltd. Domestically, I am happily married with two grown-up sons living in Scotland. Sportwise, I play hockey for England Vintage, now Grand Masters (O60s).